The Loss of The UK Dream

I love England, the land of my birth, and I visit every year for six weeks in the summer to play golf and see old friends. But my decision to visit the USA in November 1980, just after my 18th birthday, was the best of my life. I have lived and continue to live the “American Dream” ever since. But, while British comedian Al Murry, aka “The Pub Landlord,” jokes about the British not needing a dream because “They are awake,” the chances of any kid in Britain coming out of college being able to do what I did in the USA by the time I was thirty, are very slim at best. Everything is set up against them, from taxes to house prices, and the standard of living in the UK continues to decline.

I will skip the beginning stages of a career, and use round numbers.

If you make £100,000 a year living in the United Kingdom, you will be taxed £34,396. That means your net pay will be £65,604 per year or £5,467 monthly. Your average tax rate is 34.4%, and your marginal tax rate is 43.3%. Let’s split the difference and call it 39%.

Then there is a 20% sales tax (Vat) on almost everything you buy except groceries. So as soon as you purchase anything, your tax rate is really 59% of your income. By comparison, the sales tax in Florida is 6.5%.

Plus, there are huge additional taxes on things like gasoline, which is $10 plus a gallon. It is…